Interior design of the book should be structurally organised and as polished as possible. Here are some of the general guidelines that will help authors to format their manuscript.
One of the first things an author can do to format their manuscript in Microsoft Word is to set appropriate margins by clicking on the ‘Page Layout tab’ and setting the margins to 1.52 cm on all sides. This ensures that there is enough space for binding and it makes the book easier to read.
An easy-to-read font like Book Antiqua or Times New Roman in size 11.5 or 12 must be chosen.
Insert a page break at the end of each chapter to ensure a new page starts for each section. Additionally, add page numbers to the bottom or top of each page using the ‘Page Number’ option in the Insert tab.
Section breaks must be used to separate different parts of the book such as the Title Page, Table of Contents Page, and Chapters.
Use headings and subheadings to organize the manuscript and make it easier to read. Use a consistent hierarchy of headings e.g., use Heading 1 for the main section, Heading 2 for sub-sections.
It is always recommended to align the text to justified for a more professional look. For indentation, each paragraph should have its first line indented by 0.5 inches.
Make sure that the line spacing is 1.5 in the entire document, including the title page, abstract, text, references, tables and figures.
Headers and footers are also necessary to add author name, book title, and page numbers to the top or bottom of each page. Lastly, the author must subject their manuscript to a thorough spelling and grammar check in order to make sure that the manuscript is free from errors.
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